Printers

[spacebug]

I'm shopping for a new printer at work, and it turns out that getting a printer that has everything that I'd like it to have doesn't seem to exist for as cheap as I want it. Help?


We have an aging Apple Laserwriter 8500. I call it "Big Beige". It's definitely not pretty, but it does the job. Or, it did, until a plastic bit on its toner cartridge broke last week rendering it inoperable. Big Beige is aging, it's creaky, the paper drawers don't slide out easily, etc. This cartridge and the last one broke in a similar fashion well before their toner was gone. I'm not sure why, but I'd wager the aging mechanics sped that along. Cartridges are almost $150. Granted, they're high capacity, but still, that's expensive for something that's apparently not going to live out its whole life, and I don't want to buy another one. Big Beige was the main printer here until we got a leased, high-class, network-capable copier/scanner/printer/does the dishes type job that I'll call Mr. Fancy. Big Beige got a lot less traffic once Mr. Fancy showed up but was still used, mainly because it's the only printer hooked up to the public terminals we have. (It's still the only printer hooked up, so right now the public terminals have no means of printing, which is icky.) Mr. Fancy lives in the copy room and is not accessible to people using the public terminals. So... We want to replace Big Beige. I'd like to replace it with something network-capable so that it could be a backup for Mr. Fancy in case Mr. Fancy should, shudder to think, break down, or used while Mr. Fancy is busy copying and auto-stapling hundreds of workshop fliers or printing thousands of solicitation letters. So, I want it to have a network connection, be compatible with macs and PC's (we have a hybrid network), not cost a million dollars, and take a toner cartridge that carries more than a thimble. Things it does not need: color, dizzying speed, multiple trays, multifunction capability.

If nothing like this exists, I guess I'll get a cheap printer just for the public terminals and all of us will live on the hope that Mr. Fancy is infallible, but I'd rather have a second one we can all use, plus it's nice to be able to monitor the print queue somewhat so I know who's printing out eight billion pages off the intarweb and not paying us for them. It seems like there are two printers that exist that have a direct network connection and they're all super expensive and not happy with macs. What's up with that?


Any suggestions?

Comments

[magicmarmot.livejournal.com]

I have an HP laserjet 4 that needs a servicing to make it work. If you want it, you can have it, and for the cost of a service call you can have a nice low-mileage office printer.

[sarendipatree.livejournal.com]

If you were down here I'd send you to the PTA thrift shop which always seems to have a laser-printer for $25, most of which are networkable and come with a fresh cartridge. If it weren't so wasteful, I'd replace the whole printer, rather than the cartridge. =%>

Still, might be worthwhile to see if there's a similar resource anywhere in the Twins.

[rgeorge.livejournal.com]

They helpfully don't list them on the website, but UCS http://www1.umn.edu/ucs/usedcomp.php periodically gets printers, of the small-office-laser variety. The U tends to buy HP so they're generally good. Might be worth a peek.

[rubin110.livejournal.com]

You can never go wrong with an HP. Anything from the laserjet 4 on up should do the trick, you might have to get a network card for it if it's an older machine, like the 4.

[(Anonymous)]

Look for any of the HP Laserjet ####N's.

We're using Lexmarks here at work, and they're ok, show up on the network and whatnot, but really they're to be trusted. At least not like the spine place's old Laserjet 2n.

The N means network card, they work well with both pc's and macs.... should be able to find something 200-500$ range if you only need black.

[edrabbit.livejournal.com]

I'll echo the HP recommendations. All the places I've worked at have used HPs, and we've had very few problems. I can't stand lexmarks, especially the multi-function ones and their terrible drivers, but I've never used an enterprise level printer from them.

[sarendipatree.livejournal.com]

Lexmarks are good only for defenestration. (The printer, not you, though after dealing with the former, the urge toward the latter would be understandable.)

[eqe.livejournal.com]

I quite like my Brother HL5250DN; I paid between $200 and $250 at retail. It's black and white, full duplex, rated at 30ppm, comes with network support by default, and works with PC and Mac (and Linux, but you don't care about that). You'll probably want the extra paper tray since the builtin tray is only 250 pages. Toner cartridges run about $40 (cheaper if you shop around) and are supposed to be good for 3500 pages, so a bit more than a penny a page.

The *only* thing that would make me a bit nervous is that some apps can generate PS files that crash it. If you don't have those apps, it's fine; but if you do, it can be really annoying.

[omaha.livejournal.com]

of current b&w laserprinters, i, too'd recommend an hp (& that you steer clear of lexmark, but also of oki).

of current hp models, i think you'd be well served by a P2015dn (which isn't the cheapest networkable printer but at $500, isn't *horribly expensive. its toner carts're around $80).

[soylentmean.livejournal.com]

I concur with everybody who says to get an HP LJ 4+. I purchased a Laserjet 5MP five years ago, used, with PostScript *and* 40MB of memory, and it only cost me $100.

PostScript -> Important for Macs
Memory -> Nice for printing out those big, big files

The place I would most recommend checking out (or calling) is Materials Processing, out in Eagan. http://www.materialsprocessing.com/surplus.html (their LaserJets 4s start from $45, and 5/6s start from $65.)

In the cities, Que Computers might have something, but they're kind of hit-n-miss.

[soylentmean.livejournal.com]

Oh! And it still works as well as the day I bought it, although it looks ugly as shit now.